


“We found you in the snow. What the hell happened?”

by sarinoxious



Series: Prompts and shorts [3]
Category: Septic egos, jacksepticeye, jse egos - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Vomiting, Whump, relapse from alcohol addiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-22 20:17:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17669351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarinoxious/pseuds/sarinoxious
Summary: @anothermarkiplierfan asked: 144 with any three egos of your choice except one of them has to be wearing a clown costume for no particular reason.CW: Vomit, relapse during recovery from alcohol addiction





	“We found you in the snow. What the hell happened?”

His head **hurt**. It felt as if his skull was being crushed under a hydraulic press.

“What happened to him?”

“I told you already! I don’t know! He was like that when I found him!”

“Keep your voice down before you wake him up!”

The arguing voices pierced through his head, the two men might as well have been yelling into his ear. He tried to open his eyes, only to squeeze them shut again, pressing his face into the pillow with a loud groan. Why was everything so bright?

“Great fucking job, Jackie, you’ve woken him up.”

Footsteps banged towards him, loud as gunshots.

A hand on his shoulder.

“Chase, how are you doing buddy?”

He mumbled an intelligible reply into the pillow, then lifted his head slightly to repeat himself. 

“Louuuuud.”

Before his head hit the pillow again, hands started tugging at his shoulders, turning him, shifting to his back as they pushed him upright. He opened his mouth to protest, but instead of words, vomit came up his throat. Thankfully, Jackie’s quick reflexes saved the day as he grabbed a bucket from the floor and held it in front of Chase, who clenched his arms around it as his stomach squeezed together. A warm hand softly patted his back, rubbing up and down in soft motions, until his torso stopped convulsing.

“You done?”

Chase peered through his puffy eyes to see Henrik, his lip curled and his nose crinkled as he took the bucket from Chase’s hands, replacing it with two pills and a glass of water.

“Take these.”

He threw the pills backwards and eagerly chugged the water, half of it spilling out of his mouth, dripping down his chin. He hadn’t realised how parched he was.

“Thanks, doc,” he mumbled. His eyes slipped shut and his body started to slump as he sank back to sleep.

He started back up when a hand met with his cheek, leaving a stinging shadow. 

“Whas that for?” His eyes flew open to see Jackie, quickly dropping his raised hand.

“Sorry buddy, no sleep yet. What happened?”

“I-whu?”

“We found you in the snow. What the hell happened?”

 _What happened?_ Those two words overflowed his mind like an avalanche of confusion. _What happened? What happened? What-_

He took in his environment, blinking the sleep away. He was on the couch in the living room, with Jackie perched in front of him, eyes wide with concern. Henrik was gone. His body was heavy under the weight of what must be at least three blankets, and… a clown’s costume? He lifted his arms in front of his eyes, studying the stained but colourful fabric, patterned with stripes, dots, stars. The onesie had buttons down his chest that he fumbled with as he slugged through his muddy brain, looking for memories of last night. 

Sadness, happiness, flashes of drinks and unfamiliar faces, inside, outside, hot, then cold. He couldn’t make sense of it. For every fraction of regained memory, two more questions arose. He didn’t own a clown’s costume, where did he get it? Did he borrow it or steal it? Who were all those blurred faces? Where had he been? Why did he start drinking in the first place? He had been clean for _weeks_ , he- oh god, he relapsed.

His face visibly dropped as that realisation settled in, and Jackie pulled him into a tight hug. It was going so well, and he relapsed. He had been clean for 17 days. 17! Stacy was _this_ close to letting him hang out with the kids again, and he relapsed? Confusion made room for frustration and anger, mostly at himself. _Why did he let himself relapse? How could he be so careless, so stupid?_ Jackie was saying something, but the words didn’t settle. _Stupid, worthless, what an idiot he was!_

Tears soaked into the fabric of Jackie’s hoodie, but he didn’t mind. “Chase, listen to me, Chase! It’s okay! I know it’s disappointing, but we’re all still so proud of you for coming this far. Recovering from addiction isn’t an easy feat, but we’re here for you buddy. Never forget that, okay? You’ll get there, we’ll get there. Together.” Chase was clinging onto him like a baby koala to its parent.

“But, the kids…”

“Stacy doesn’t have to hear about this, okay? If you want us to keep this from her, we will. Don’t worry about that right now, just focus on getting better, alright? We’re here for you.”

“Relapse is a very common thing in the recovery process of alcohol addiction, did you know? More than 90 percent of patients have at least one relapse!” Henrik stated, in an odd attempt to ease Chase’s mind. Usually, his neverending “fun facts” had the power to annoy every person in the room, but this one time, Chase appreciated it. 

“Thank you. Thank you both,” he sobbed, “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”


End file.
